The Curse of Harry Potter
by Mac the Impaler
Summary: Harry Potter: Legend says he was cursed by Fate to live a life of Extremes. Extreme Loneliness, Hardship, Pain and Loss, he has known them all. Now perhaps, his life is at the other end of the scale and he will know Extreme Love and Power. Vampire!HP/NT
1. Memories and Regrets

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, any characters that you recognise belong to their respective copyright owners.  
**

**A.N. Greetings dear readers. This is my first attempt at fanfiction so don't expect anything too spectacular, I was inspired by Emosrockhard's 'Vampiric Harry Challenge'. I have proofread the first chapter myself and haven't found any errors but if anyone would like to beta for me that would be appreciated. Let me know what you think in your reviews. On with the Show...  
**

Chapter 1

It was raining again. The people of Little Whinging, Surrey were confused by the large amount of rain they were receiving this late in the summer. All except one person. This person lived in the smallest bedroom of Number 4 Privet Drive, his name was Harry Potter and he couldn't care less about the near constant rain, or the fact that he hadn't eaten in a week, or that his relatives had forgotten he was even there. No, Harry Potter only cared about one thing. His beloved godfather, Sirius Black, had died over a week ago and it was entirely his fault.

_Sirius I'm so sorry. If I hadn't been an idiot and gone to the ministry none of this would have happened and you'd still be alive._

His fists clenched tightly, nails digging into his palms, as he thought of everything he could have done to prevent the death of his godfather.

_If I had just tried harder in Occlumency, or if I had just listened to Hermione when she said it felt like a trap or if I had used the communication mirror that Sirius gave me I would have known that Voldemort was sending me visions and I wouldn't have charged in like a blind Gryffindor._

Harry continued his brooding for a while until he realised the rain had stopped for a time, so he decided to make the most of the opportunity and get some fresh air. Rather than risk confronting his relatives by going downstairs and out the front door, he decided to use his favourite exit to the smallest bedroom since the summer before his 2nd year at Hogwarts, when Ron and the twins come and rescued him with the flying Ford Anglia, and slid his window open, letting Hedwig out first to stretch her wings, before following suit and jumping out of the second story window, leaving it just slightly open behind him, and landing in a crouch in front of his Aunt Petunia's rose bushes.

He sighed as he straightened up and began walking down the footpath, caught up in his thoughts and not really caring where his feet were leading him, oblivious to the eyes watching him.

* * *

Nymphadora Tonks was not a happy woman. In the past week she had been fired, hired, reassigned and bereaved. Now to top it all off she was cold and wet, the constant rain and the dark clouds reflecting her mood perfectly as well as soaking her to the bone. As she shivered in the cold and watched her charge through his window she thought back to the events that had led to where she was now.

_Dumbledore had just taken Harry and portkeyed out. Aurors and Ministry officials were crawling all over the place and Fudge looked like he was about to keel over. Tonks was helping Shack and Moody secure the atrium and guard the unconscious Death Eaters. The place was a war zone, the fountain had been demolished and there was broken glass and shattered stone all over the place. The air was still heavy with the residual magic from the battle between the Leader of the Light and the Dark Lord, every surface was statically charged and small arcs of magic jumped to anything they could. Tonks looked over at Moody and decided to break the calm silence that enveloped them inside their privacy bubble._

"_What casualties are there?" she asked quietly_

"_Longbottom has a broken wand, nose and cruciatus exposure, Granger was nearly cut in half with an unknown dark curse and lost a lot of blood, the Weasley boy was hit with an inebriation curse and was attacked by some brain-things while the Weasley girl has a broken ankle and the Lovegood girl has fractured ribs" listed Mad-Eye._

_Tonks frowned at his omission "What about Harry?" her voice sounded weak even to her own ears._

_Kingsley put his hand on her shoulder before speaking in his deep bass voice "He followed Lestrange out here to the atrium before you were enervated. We don't know if he was injured further but You-Know-Who was in here and he probably has several cuts and cruciatus exposure at least."_

"_Why would he follow Bellatrix? He smashed the Prophecy didn't he?"_

_Kingsley sighed deeply before speaking again "Tonks, she killed Sirius. His body fell through the Veil. I'm sorry"_

_Tonks' face registered shock and her hair wilted from its usual bubblegum pink to a depressed, mousy brown. She clenched her fists and squeezed her eyes shut to keep her tears from falling, she felt Kingsley pat her on the shoulder sympathetically while she got herself under control. When her eyes opened again they were a cold, steel grey and her hair had bloomed into a dark, blood red. She looked up and scanned the room with her murderous gaze, as if expecting to find her insane Aunt cackling madly among the ministry workers. Failing to find her desired target she turned her attention to the closest outlet of her frustration and proceeded to kick the unconscious form of Rodolphus Lestrange. In the testicles. Repeatedly._

_Just then, Fate decided that Cornelius Fudge needed to be punched in the face really, really hard. Fudge, being the good little pawn that he was, decided to go and make sure everyone knew he was still in-charge, even though he failed to realise that would not be true for very much longer, by blustering his way into the privacy bubble that surrounded Aurors Moody, Shacklebolt and Tonks and demanding to know just what they thought they were doing and why several upstanding purebloods were stunned and restrained like common criminals. This drew the full attention of the three Aurors. Auror Shacklebolt opened his mouth to say they had been captured while breaking into the Department of Mysteries, Auror Moody prepared to bark at the pompous fool that they __**are**__ common criminals and were being treated as such, but neither of them could utter more than a single syllable before the fist of Auror Tonks, who had abandoned her abuse of Rodolphus' wedding tackle, connected with the left side of his face and sent him flying out of their bubble and sprawling to the floor. Fate, satisfied with her work, smiled and sat back to watch the rest of the show._

_Fudge lay on the ground for a moment in stunned disbelief that someone had actually struck him like some common muggle, before picking himself up off the floor, his face turning purple with rage, and bellowing in the loudest voice he could manage "You are FIRED!"_

_Silence flooded the area as all movement ground to a halt._

_BAM_

_Tonks' fist broke the silence and Fudge's jaw._

_THUD_

_The floor shattered them as he slumped unconscious._

_Everyone in the atrium was staring at her in mind-numbing shock, everyone except Shacklebolt and Moody who were watching her warily and were the only ones close enough to hear her next words._

"_You can't fire me" she whispered in a hollow voice "I quit."_

_Then before either of her comrades could stop her, she drew her wand and apparated through the shattered wards and back to Number 12 Grimmauld Place._

_She had sat on her bed and cried until her eyes were puffy and red, until no more tears would come, then she passed into a fitful sleep from physical and emotional exhaustion._

_She awoke next to the sound of a light knocking on her door and Mrs. Weasley whispering that there was a meeting and that the whole Order was downstairs, she did not know how long she had been asleep but she did not feel rested at all. Reluctantly she followed the Weasley Matriarch and sat down in the offered seat, not looking at anyone but just staring blankly at the table. That is until she heard the sound of the floo and the low murmurs around her turn to deafening silence. She looked up in time to see Dumbledore, looking every single one of his 158 years, slowly lowering himself into the chair at the head of the table. She was shocked that the night's events had such an effect on him when he was usually notoriously unflappable. If she was shocked at his appearance, it was nothing compared to how she felt when he spoke._

"_My friends" he began slowly "tonight has truly been one of the worst nights in my long and quite considerable life." His opening sentence made sure he had everyone's full attention. "This day has seen the consequences of some of my most difficult decisions come to bear. I fear that this old man is not quite as infallible as he seems and that the repercussions of my decisions have far too many long reaching effects."_

_He paused here and looked around the table at the familiar faces of his most trusted allies and, seeing no anger or malice towards him, seemed to regain some of his old spark before continuing._

"_I have done many things in my life that I am not proud of, but I always told myself it was to ensure that the world had a future, that I did what I did for the Greater Good of all. Perhaps, if I had been able to seek counsel with someone I considered wiser than myself, then many of my choices may have been made differently. Alas, back then the only people I considered more knowledgeable than myself were Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel" Here he gave a self depreciating laugh. "and they aren't really the sort of people you can floo call for advice."_

_The rest of the Order laughed at the Headmasters talent for understatements._

"_However," His voice had lost all humour now "that does not absolve me of the choices I was forced to make and I have come to realise that some of my choices were terrible ones indeed. Had I not chosen to isolate and hide the Potters and Longbottoms but instead decided to keep them close and among allies they might still be alive and well, had I not chosen to ignore the facts when Sirius was brought to me in chains He might never have been sent to Azkaban and Harry could have grown up in a loving environment instead of with his muggle Aunt in the cupboard under the stairs where I was forced to send him for his protection, if I had not chosen to keep Harry ignorant of his Destiny for so long then Sirius might still be alive and Harry would not be in such pain as he is in now..."_

_Dumbledore's voice grew steadily louder as he spoke, until he came to the part about keeping Harry ignorant of his destiny, at which point his voice went soft and sad. The Order were gob-smacked to say the least, their great leader was as much as admitting defeat when they had just managed to counter one of his major plans and had thrown a large spanner in the works of all his others, surely that had to count for something._

"_I feel that I know what you are all going to say, but without Harry, all our efforts will have been for nothing. I feel that now he is revealed, Voldemort" Everyone except Moody flinched "will begin increasing his attacks in an attempt to re-create the old fear of the 1__st__ War. We must work harder than ever to make sure that he gains as little support as possible. You all have your assignments, the fate of things to come depends upon what we do here and now. You are all dismissed, stay safe."_

_Everyone looked at Dumbledore for a few moments longer before they slowly started to filter out of the room, all except Tonks and Dumbledore. When he realised that she was still present, he just sat calmly, his eyes gently twinkling, waiting for her to speak._

"_Sir" she began quietly "After you left, the Minister… I… Fudge fired me. I'm not an Auror anymore and I don't want to be either, I don't know what I should be doing though." She looked up at her former Headmaster and gave him a frustrated look at her inability to convey her feelings, he smiled back at her and it seemed to convey that he knew what she was trying to say._

"_You have no wish to go back to the Ministry, but you still want to contribute to the war. It just so happens that the Defence Against the Dark Arts position at Hogwarts was recently vacated and I find myself looking for a replacement. You wouldn't happen to know anyone who is currently unemployed that might be interested and has sufficient qualifications to teach the children to protect themselves would you Miss Tonks? An Ex-Auror would be ideal, but alas, such individuals are rare." His grandfatherly smile made sure that she caught on quickly and gave him a happy smile in return. _

"_I would be honoured Professor, thank you."_

"_Believe me Miss Tonks, I should be thanking you, I don't think the school could survive anymore Ministry interference. Now then, since you have no other duties to attend to I need you to guard Harry until his 16__th__ Birthday, you will be his only guard as the other Order members have their own missions to complete. I will make arrangements for any equipment you need as well as emergency Portkeys should Harry or yourself be attacked. You are not required to be at Hogwarts until the 15__th__ of August, I will have the defence professors quarters prepared for your arrival. If that is all, I shall bid you goodnight Miss Tonks."_

_With that, the old man stood and made his way slowly to the fireplace, grabbed a handful of floo-powder and said just loud enough for Tonks to hear, "I am truly sorry about Sirius", before tossing the powder into the fire and disappearing up the chimney in a flare of green._

_Tonks sat there quietly, thinking about Dumbledore's parting words, before making her way back to her bedroom and crying herself to sleep for the second time that day._

Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Tonks completed her check of the perimeter wards and circled back to her observation post, only to see Harry jump out of his window and start making his way down the street towards the park. She cursed silently and fell into step 30 feet behind him. Had she known that she wasn't the only person following Harry Potter, she would have been less worried about stealth and more worried about which pocket her emergency Portkey was in.


	2. Thunder and Lightning

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, any characters that you recognise belong to their respective copyright owners.**

**A.N. Sorry for the long wait, certain parts of this chapter refused to be written properly. Future updates should be significantly quicker.**

Chapter 2

"_This is a two-way mirror, I've got the other one of the pair. If you need to speak to me, just say my name into it; you'll appear in my mirror and I'll be able to talk in yours. James and I used to use them when we were in separate detentions._"

Sirius' words echoed inside Harry's mind as he stared at the enchanted mirror in his hands. He was sitting on one of the only two undamaged swings in the park, which was currently empty thanks to the dark clouds in the sky and the low rumbles of distant thunder on the air.

"Sirius" he whispered it so quietly that he struggled to hear himself "Sirius are you there?"

Nothing

"Sirius answer me, please"

The mirror remained silent, leaving Harry with the image of a dark haired, green eyed, pasty faced teenager staring back at him with hopelessness showing clearly on his face and a lightning-bolt scar throbbing malevolently on his forehead.

"Why did you have to die?"

No answer came from the enchanted glass and he felt a sudden surge of anger.

"SIRIUS! WHY WON'T YOU ANSWER ME!"

Just as his rage hit its peak and he raised his arm to smash the accursed mirror into a thousand tiny pieces, he heard something that stopped him dead.

"Harry, please don't."

He froze in his tracks. That was not Sirius' voice, in fact it was a female voice if he heard correctly. Slowly, not daring to hope, he lowered his arm and turned it so he was looking into the mirror. Emerald green eyes looked back at him and he almost choked on his breath, but his moment of hope was shattered when he realised they were framed by round, wire-rimmed glasses and that the face looking back at him was still his.

He frowned, and the Harry in the mirror did the same.

_Am I hearing things now?_

Deciding to be sure, he raised the mirror closer to his face and quietly said "Hello?"

"I'm not in the mirror Harry" the voice sounded amused.

"Show yourself"

There was a whirl of cloth and his nostrils caught a scent of roses and green apples, then he realised the person he was talking too had been under an invisibility cloak and that she was most definitely female.

"Wotcher Harry"

Her dull mousy brown hair framed her heart-shaped face and her light blue eyes lacked that sparkle of mischief that she usually had. She seemed so fragile and lifeless and yet he found himself suddenly struggling for breath as with every other time he had seen her.

"Tonks?"

* * *

"Tonks?"

She felt an involuntary shiver run down her spine when she heard him say her name. Unlike Harry, she realised her feelings for what they were and tried to stamp them out whenever they arose, telling herself that it wasn't proper to be attracted to a 15-almost-16 year old. Yet whenever she looked into his eyes, those deep green emeralds that he inherited from his mother, she found herself falling even further. Mentally shaking her head, she refocused on the present and could tell that Harry was waiting for an explanation as to why she was here, although he looked like he already knew and seemed quite conflicted about the answer.

"The one and only, well… unless you count my mum and dad" the look on Harry's face told her he was not in the mood for humour.

"Your turn to guard the weapon then is it?" he asked bitterly

She frowned at his expression and tried to puzzle out what he meant, but came up short when he asked another question.

"So who else drew the short straws? Dung? Moody? Remus?"

This was not the Harry Potter she knew, that Harry would have been asking her for info about the Order and what Voldemort might be up to and wether or not his friends were being protected too. This Harry seemed indifferent and cold, it seemed Sirius death had affected him more than anyone had thought. She felt her throat tighten at the thought of her dead cousin and felt her eyes burn for a moment before she got herself under control again.

"No Harry, we didn't draw straws. Everyone has their own assignments, mine is to guard you until your birthday and then I'll take you to Headquarters."

"Wait, you're my only guard for the next month?" he sounded less bitter and more confused now.

"Yes, is that a problem?"

"No!" his exclamation seemed to surprise himself "I mean, don't you have Auror stuff to do? Surely you can't spend all your time patrolling Privet Drive?"

She sighed heavily, and then smiled slightly as she imagined his reaction to her news.

"I'm not an Auror anymore Harry, Fudge fired me." She held her breath as she waited for his outburst. She didn't have to wait long.

"WHAT!" his neck muscles were taut and straining against his skin and his eyes seemed to glow with rage "That fat, foppish, bumbling, pompous, asshat of a Minister fired you! What for, doing your job properly?" The thunder in the distance seemed to rumble in answer to Harry's anger.

"Calm down Harry, if he hadn't fired me I would have quit anyway. Besides, I gave him a good reason."

"What possible reason could Fudge have for firing you?" his voice betraying his disbelief that Fudge had a good reason for doing anything.

"I punched him in the face."

Harry just sat there, open-mouthed, in absolute shock.

"Twice" she gave a self satisfied smile which seemed to break him out of his stunned disbelief and she mentally counted down the time until he properly processed what she had told him.

_Three_

His jaw snapped shut

_Two_

His eyes widened ever so slightly

_One_

Tonks had seen Harry laugh before, with his friends or with Sirius, but this laugh was different. He wasn't laughing to be polite or chuckling at a prank, this was an honest and deep belly laugh that he couldn't control. He was clutching at his sides and turning red in the face, he seemed so much more open when he was laughing and his green eyes were shining with mirth. Tonks soon found herself laughing as well when Harry fell backwards off of the swing still gasping for air.

"You punched Fudge?" he managed to gasp out between laughing and breathing.

"Yes, is that so hard to believe?"

"No" he said quickly "But why?"

Tonks gave him a mischievous smile and said "Why not?"

This of course sent him into another fit of uncontrollable laughter that left him choking for breath. Slowly he regained the ability to form coherent words, but Tonks could still see the laughter in his eyes.

"I haven't laughed like that for ages." He paused "Not since the start of my fourth year at Hogwarts anyway." His expression dropped" So much has changed since then." He gave Tonks a sad look "How do you cope Tonks?"

She was surprised by the way his mood shifted, and then her own mood darkened as she processed his question.

"You don't cope do you?" He answered for her "You just put on a mask and try to forget, same as me"

She looked at him intensely, wondering what was going through his head. He looked back at her, and in his eyes she saw grief and pain, the green flash of death and the Imperius-defying will of a man who knew that the odds were stacked against him and continued on anyway. Those fathomless green eyes, so deep she could feel herself falling in. Then he blinked, the connection broke, and she caught herself mid-step and sat down on the swing adjacent to him, puzzling over what had just happened.

* * *

"Should we kill the woman?"

"No, take her alive. If this boy is as troublesome as we have been led to believe, then we can threaten her to keep him tame."

"Should we take her to the Dark Lord as well then?"

"Perhaps, although she does smell rather tasty. We will decide what to do with her once we have turned the boy over to the Dark Lord. Tell the others to take them on my signal."

"Yes, my liege. They will be ready."

* * *

Peace.

It was the first time he'd felt truly at peace for a long time.

For as long as he could remember he had been looking over his shoulder, always wondering when the next cruelty would come and always hoping that one day it would end. Then he started at Hogwarts and everything appeared to change, he made friends, he was well liked and he had fun for the first time in a long time. Then the other shoe dropped, Voldemort made yearly attempts to return to the world of the living and begin his reign of terror anew, while Harry juggled passing school, winning quidditch, maintaining friendships and thwarting evil plots. He was back to looking over his shoulder, constantly waiting for the next strike from the Dark Lord and his merry band of sycophants, always wondering who would be the next to die.

Cedric Diggory – Hufflepuff, Champion, Friend.

Sirius Black – Godfather, Brother, Prankster.

Their faces haunted his nightmares, their voices lingered just on the edge of his hearing, always present and waiting for a moment of weakness to prey yet again on his guilt and despair.

But not now.

He felt oddly light inside, despite the dark and foreboding weather, like a great weight that he had carried in his chest all his life had been removed and he was taking his first deep breaths. He was at peace.

He would bet his Firebolt and his Invisibility Cloak that the witch on the swing next to him had something to do with it.

When he first met Tonks he was intrigued by, and slightly jealous of, her metamorphmagus ability. He had always hated the scar that identified him as the Boy-Who-Lived and wished he was like Tonks so he could get rid of it. Later, when they got to know each other better at HQ, he told her as much and she told him of the curse it had been for her all through school, with everyone wanting her to look like someone else. He made a silent promise to himself then and there to not ask her to use her ability for his own amusement.

Looking at her now, sitting on the swing next to him, an expression on her face that made his heart beat erratically, he realised that she must have been feeling at least as miserable about Sirius death as he was. Then, like a dementor had wrapped its hand around his heart, he realised she probably blamed him for her cousin's death. As much as he had been blaming himself and generally feeling miserable for the last week, he realised that one of the few things that could make him feel worse right now would be Tonks screaming that it was his fault Sirius was dead.

Dreading the response but having to know anyway, Harry broke the calm silence in a quiet voice.

"Do you hate me now Tonks?"

* * *

"Do you hate me now Tonks?"

Startled out of her thoughts by the sudden break in silence and the oddness of the question asked of her, Tonks struggled to gather her wits so she could ask where he got such a bizarre idea from. She only got as far as frowning and opening her mouth to respond before her head whipped around and her wand appeared in her hand as she heard a number of twigs snap in the small grove of trees behind them.

Moving to stand between Harry and the trees, she tried frantically to locate the pocket with the emergency Portkey in it while scanning the area near the trees for any sign of a threat. Seeing none she sheathed her wand and turned back to Harry, or at least where Harry had been sitting a few seconds ago. She stared blankly at the swing for a few seconds before making to draw her wand again, only to find that it too had disappeared. A quiet chuckle from behind her had her spinning around for the third time, only to find her wand being twirled between the fingers of a rather pale man with short curly hair. She tried to grab her wand but the man just tossed it over his shoulder and gave her a fanged smile. Then, faster than her eyes could follow, he spun low and swept her legs out from under her and she landed hard on her back. As she lay there coughing, trying to get her breath back, he stood over her with a frown marring his pale face. As she slowly got her breath back, Tonks was able to wheeze out two words to the vampire who had so easily disabled her.

"Where's Harry?"

Her question seemed to cheer him up as his fanged grin returned and his dark eyes shone in the moonlight.

"You will see him when you wake." He replied.

Then her world went black.


End file.
